During the development of communication networks, besides various IT terminal devices (such as mobile phones, PDAs, and laptops), more and more non-IT terminal devices are integrated with intelligent functions such as audio communication, so that non-IT terminal devices can interact with other devices over communication networks to achieve data communication from machine to machine (M2M).
Terminal devices need to be associated with a sensor network and an IP network before accessing the IP network. The association process includes: a terminal device sends an Association Request message to a Coordinator (Coordinator) or a Personal Area Network Coordinator (PAN Coordinator). The Coordinator or the PAN Coordinator performs processing such as authentication on the terminal device and sends back an Association Respond message to the terminal device to complete associating the terminal device with the sensor network. After being successfully associated with the sensor network, the terminal device can communicate with other devices on the sensor network. To enable the terminal device to access an IP network, the terminal device broadcasts a Router Solicitation message and receives a Router Advertisement message sent by a router (the router records the network association message of the terminal device). The Router Advertisement message carries a prefix of the IP network to which the terminal device belongs. Then, the terminal device sends a Node Registration message that carries the IP network prefix. If the terminal device directly accesses the Edge Router on a local sensor network, the terminal device sends a Node Registration message to the Edge Router. Otherwise, the terminal device sends a Node Registration message to the router to which the terminal device accesses and the router forwards the Node Registration message to the Edge Router. The Edge Router allocates an IP address for the terminal device according to the IP network prefix and sends back a Node Confirmation message that carries the IP address allocated for the terminal device. With the Node Confirmation message being sent, the terminal device successfully associates with the IP network.
During a research in the conventional art, the inventor finds at least the following problems: in the conventional art, associating a terminal device with a sensor network is separated from that with an IP network. The entire association process needs multiple signaling interworking, which wastes network resources and does not comply with the principle of low power-consumption.